Keuka Lake-based Deep Root Vineyard, which produces a dry unoaked Chambourcin among other wines, will host a wine-and-cupcake tasting on June 22 and 23. Provided photo.

Keuka Lake-based Deep Root Vineyard will host a wine-and-cupcake tasting at the winery on June 22 and 23. The cost is $10 per person for five pairings.

Examples on the menu will range from a Mexican chocolate cupcake with spiced cream cheese frosting, which will be served with the winery’s Traminette, to a vanilla and toasted coconut cupcake paired with dry rose.

Deep Root co-owners Michelle and Ben Hartman repurposed their 1950s barn into an open-air tasting room last summer. Prior to the opening, they built a following for their wines through sampling and sales at farmers markets in Rochester and Corning.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the winery, 10391 Cross St. in Hammondsport, Steuben County. For reservations, call (315) 651-2201 or email info@deeprootvineyard.com.

Italy Hill Produce, an organic farm run by Jonathan Hunt and Caroline Boutard-Hunt of Hunt Country Vineyards in Branchport, Yates County, plans to expand its plantings this year.

As in the past, the operation also has taken steps to update its annual certification from the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York.

The expansion plans include increasing the heirloom corn varieties at the farm, planting fruit trees where Concord grapes once grew, and building a hoop greenhouse so that the operation can harvest greens year-round.

“We’re currently buying seed and making sure all our equipment and supplies are ready to go once summer starts,” Caroline Boutard-Hunt says.

Roughly 14 varieties of heirloom or open-pollinated tomato varieties will be among the farm’s crops this year, as well as eggplant, squash, basil and various leaf chicories.

In order to ensure freshness, the farm’s asks customers to pick up the produce they have preordered during the season at Hunt Country’s tasting room, 4021 Italy Hill Road in Branchport.

Keuka Lake Vineyards co-owners Mel and Dorothee Goldman traded a parcel of land adjacent to their former Washington, D.C.-area home for acreage on Keuka Lake, where they now grow grapes. Provided photo.

Keuka Lake Vineyards plans to pour at least eight examples of its Vignoles white wine at a vertical tasting on April 20.

“Two of the vintages that we are sure to pour are 2005 and 2006, each of which is quite different in character,” says winery co-owner Mel Goldman. “We should also pour one each of the ’07s and ’08s, but we haven’t decided which.”

Vignoles typically figures into sweet late-harvest wines produced in the Finger Lakes, but Goldman’s operation takes a different tack with the hybrid grape, which also is known as Ravat 51.

Two Waterloo natives have launched Winewagen Tours, a company providing tours of Finger Lakes wine country in a fully restored 1971 Volkswagen Westfalia Bus.

Passengers may customize their tours of the Seneca, Cayuga and Keuka wine trails or rely on co-owners Zach and Laura Cutlip as guides. A typical tour lasts six hours, though an hourly rate for shorter trips also is available.

Painted forest green, the six-passenger vehicle probably began its life on the road in Oslo, Norway, before heading to California, Zach Cutlip says. The couple bought the bus earlier this year from a Buffalo resident whom kept it in pristine condition.

“The interior was the only thing we really had to tackle, but we had a vision for that,” says Cutlip, who named the bus “Terrapin.” The main refurbishment involved installing cork flooring, in keeping with the wine-country theme.

“We still have the sink and stove, which are interchangeable with the rear-facing bench seat for family camping when not booked,” he says.

The company has attracted a diverse clientele, including a group of locomotive engineers from the United Kingdom.

“There has even been a marriage proposal on one of our tours,” Cutlip says.

The company’s standard rate for a six-hour tour is $300, including tax and a 15 percent gratuity. The hourly rate is $41.

Pickup and drop-off occur in the Geneva area, though other arrangements can be made for an additional charge.

Hunt Country Vineyards in Branchport, Yates County, has opened a locavore room that stocks locally made foods and goods. The new space is inside the Keuka Lake winery’s tasting room and operates year-round.

Hunt Country co-owner Joyce Hunt says promoting homegrown products dovetails with the winery’s sustainability efforts. The winery has a vertical-axis wind turbine and plans to embark on a geothermal project this month.

“Buying locally supports the local economy and doesn’t leave the big carbon footprint that shipping across the country does,” Hunt says.

The locavore room also will provide exposure for Italy Hill Produce, an organic farm that Joyce Hunt’s son and daughter-in-law, Jonathan Hunt and Caroline Boutard-Hunt, run on the winery’s grounds.

Last year, Italy Hill closed its farm stand at the winery so that it could transition to notifying customers of available produce by email. In order to ensure freshness, the farm now asks customers to pick up the vegetables they have preordered in Hunt Country’s tasting room.

A fundraising effort under way at Keuka Lake-based Bully Hill Vineyards aims to stomp out hunger in upstate New York. Provided photo.

Keuka Lake-based Bully Hill Vineyards and its distributor, Southern Wine and Spirits, have partnered to donate $1 for every case of Bully Hill wine sold in upstate New York from July 1 until year’s end to five food banks.

Agencies that will benefit from the effort include Rochester-based Foodlink and Elmira-based Food Bank of the Southern Tier. Last year, the latter distributed 7 million pounds of food across the six counties it serves.

Other Finger Lakes wineries have taken on the fight against hunger. Last winter, Cayuga Lake-based King Ferry Winery donated $5,100 to the Food Bank of Central New York, after setting aside $1 from every $3 tasting fee it collected in 2011 and January of this year.

Deep Root Vineyard has opened a covered outdoor tasting room in Hammondsport, Steuben County. The operation samples and sells four or five wines, including a semi-dry Traminette called Moonflower.

Prior to the opening, co-owners Michelle and Ben Hartman built a following for their wines through tastings and sales at farmers markets in Rochester and Corning. The couple moved to the Finger Lakes from New Jersey in 2007.

Deep Root’s tasting fee is $2 presently but will soon increase to $3. Tasters may keep their wineglasses as souvenirs.

Century-old Concord grapevines on the property inspired the winery’s name. Field trials with Riesling vines are now under way.

The tasting room is at 10391 Cross St. in Hammondsport. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Monday from April to November or by appointment from December to March.

Samuel Warren, a devout Christian and log-cabin dweller who first planted grapevines near a Livingston County creek in the 1820s, gets a mention in a new film the Finger Lakes Museum is developing about the region’s winemaking history. Photo provided by the York Historical Society.

The Finger Lakes Museum plans to establish a wine-tasting program, vineyard and 19th century-inspired winery structure at Keuka Lake State Park as part of its second phase of development.

The park site, one of two Yates County campuses in the museum project, is expected to open in 2014 or 2015.

Gary Cox, volunteer chair of the museum’s narrative and images committee, says the tasting program would likely include flights – or multiple samples served together – of local wines made from vinifera, hybrid or native grapes.

Some flights would be served blind, meaning tasters would not know in advance the wines’ producer, geographic origin or grape variety.

The winery structure would allow visitors to follow a gravity-powered, pre-electric production path from grape reception to bottling, riddling and labeling, Cox says.

A visit some of the museum organizers made to the former Graff Wine Cellar near Naples, Ontario County, sparked the idea for the structure.

Yet its design, which is still on the drawing board, may turn out quite differently than Graff’s, Cox says.

“There’ll also be a small vineyard of the (grape) varieties that arrived here early, like Catawba and Isabella, as well as the others that have found a place in the region,” he says.

This September, the museum will release its film on how temperance and Prohibition affected the Finger Lakes wine industry. Screenings will occur at venues across the region and be followed by wine-and-grape tastings.

A California family with local ties plans to reopen Villa Bellangelo winery in Dundee, Yates County, this spring and has brought a well-known Finger Lakes winemaker on board.

Pending licensing, new co-owner Christopher Missick anticipates reopening a fully renovated Villa Bellangelo no earlier than mid-April. Ian Barry, formerly of Keuka Lake Vineyards in Hammondsport, Steuben County, has been hired as the operation’s winemaker.

Missick, an attorney whose mother was born and raised in Rochester, says Barry will be charged with doubling the winery’s annual production to 6,000 cases this year and retooling its signature product, a semi-sparkling Moscato made from Valvin Muscat grapes.

Plans also are under way to expand the Scooter series, the winery’s value label.

Currently, the 10-acre property has only a few rows of grapevines. Planting a block of Riesling is in the offing.

“We’ve got a really great slope on the east end of the property that goes toward Seneca Lake,” says Missick, who has vacationed near Lake Ontario over the years and plans to relocate here this month.

The purchase price for the winery, initially listed at $499,000, was not disclosed.

Villa Bellangelo is located at 150 Poplar Point in Dundee. For more information, go to www.bellangelo.com.

Patrice DeMay, owner of Keuka Lake-based Chateau Renaissance Wine Cellars, makes sparkling and still wines from grapes and fruit. In the 1970s, he passed up a chance to compete on France’s judo team at the Summer Olympics so that he could move to the United States. File photo by S. Livadas.

Chateau Renaissance Wine Cellars in Hammondsport, Steuben County, has released a nonvintage pear wine and two nonvintage currant wines. Each costs $9.95 for a 375-milliliter bottle and has the versatility to pair with a main course or dessert, winery owner Patrice DeMay says.

Fruit for the red and black currant wines came from bushes alongside the winery’s driveway. The red currant wine has some acidity, while the black currant wine has more body and bolder flavors. They pair well with venison and berry desserts, DeMay says.

The pear wine has become popular at Union Square Market in New York City, where DeMay sells his lineup every Wednesday.

“This one is great with…a cheddar cheese,” DeMay says. Pork, chicken and vanilla desserts also go well with the quaff.

Chateau Renaissance is located at 7494 Fish Hatchery Road in Hammondsport. For more information, call (866) 426-7543 or go to www.winesparkle.com.

Sheila Livadas is a freelance writer and blogger who counts Finger Lakes Riesling among her many passions. When taking a break from savoring the region’s wines, she grows orchids, practices yoga and reminisces about remarkable meals she’s had, including Welsh rarebit and toast points at the defunct Manhattan Restaurant in Rochester.

With parents that operate their own cooking school, Holly Howell grew up in the ultimate food-loving family. At 18, she spent a year in France where she developed a passion for good wine. “I drank some of the best wines of my life, and didn’t even realize it at the time!” Holly Howell is a Certified Specialist of Wine through the Society of Wine Educators, and a Certified Sommelier through the Master Court of Sommeliers in England. She also teaches wine and food pairing classes. Holly enjoys skiing, tennis, guitar, piano, gardening, cooking, and even making her own wine (which is getting better with each vintage). She has four adorable cats who also love good food, but have a knack for knocking over full wine glasses.